Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses
1st edition 1989 Springer Verlag 0–387–96807–5
2nd edition 2002 MIT Press 0–262–03296–1
Sharing a root with anesthesia, meaning “no sensation,” synesthesia means “joined sensation,” whereby two or more senses are coupled such that a voice is not only heard, but also felt, seen, or tasted. Synesthetes are surprised to discover that others aren’t like them!
In synesthesia’s first English-language book Cytowic shows how it is not a mere curiosity, but a window onto a wide swath of mental life, such as metaphor, consciousness, the roots of creativity, and the origin of language. He gives the first complete picture of the brain mechanisms behind this remarkable experience that has confounded scientists for 200 years.
“This new edition brings the reader rapidly up to date with the scholarly and scientific debates in this field, and will stand as the new textbook on this unusual condition.”
–– Simon Baron–Cohen, University of Cambridge.
Contents in Detail
Foreword to the First Edition by Ayub K. Ommaya, M.D.
Foreword to the Second Edition by Jonathan Cole, DM, FRCP
Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
1.1 Historical Developments
1.2 Criticism of Experiential Responses
1.3 Synesthetes as Cognitive Fossils
2. Synesthetes Speak
2.1 Synesthetes speak for themselves
2.2 Similarities of Stories
2.3 Range of Synesthetic Performance
2.4 Synesthesia as an Unelaborted Percept
2.5 Validity, consistancy, and limits to manipulation of the parallel sense
2.6 Psychological influence and stigma
2.7 What is synesthesia good for?
2.8 Familil cases
3. Theories of synesthesia: A review and a new proposal
3.1 Clinical Diagnosis
3.2 Diagnostic criteria for synesthesia
3.3 What and where is the link?
3.4 Theories of the Mechanism of Synesthesia
3.5 Proposal for a Synesthetic Mediator
3.6 Operationalizing the Theories of Synestheisa
4. Overlaps and Evidence for Localization
4.1 Phenomena Similar to Synesthesia
4.2 LSD-Induced Synesthesia
4.3 Hypermnesia
4.4 Release Hallucinations
4.5 Simple Synesthesia and Deafferentation
4.6 Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
4.7 Electrical Stimulation of the Brain
4.8 Summary
4.9 Supporting Evidence for Anatomical Localization
4.10 rCBF Redistribution in Synesthesia: Analogy to Migraine Theory
4.11 Relation of Synesthetic Perceptions to Klüver’s Form Constants
5. Spatial Extension
5.1 Legacy of Gestalt Psychology
5.2 Auditory Scene Analysis
5.3 Form Constants Revisited
5.4 Number Forms
5.5 Sensation of Movement
5.6 Synesthesia configurations
5.7 Memory Maps
5.8 Conclusion
6. The Neural Substrate of Synesthesia
6.1 Concepts of Neural Tissue
6.2 Anatomical Details
6.3 Lateralization and Hemispheric Specialization
6.4 The Limbic System
6.5 Color and Spatial Analysis
6.6 A transmodal Binding Model of Synesthesia
7. Developmental Issues
7.1 Neonatal Synesthesia
7.2 Synesthesia, Similarity, and Metaphor
7.3 Synesthesia and Language
7.4 Affect and Synesthesia
7.5 Plasticity in Young Synesthetes
8. Synesthesia, Personality, and Art
8.1 Psychological Parameters of Synesthetes
8.2 Synesthesia and Art
8.3 Deliberate Contrivances
9. Seeing Reality
9.1 Seeing and Reality
9.2 Colored Illusions: Color Constancy and Colored Shadows
9.3 Retinex Thoery of COlor Vision
9.4 Optic Imagery and Lightness
9.5 Microgenesis
Appendix A: Index of Specific Synesthetes’ Perceptions
Appendix B: Web Sites About Synesthesia
References
Afterword by Hinderk Emrich, M.D., Ph.D.
Contents in Detail ... Noam Sagiv’s book review in Psyche
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